ABSTRACT
References 346
1. MIXED HEARING LOSS
Whenever the hearing loss of a patient includes a mixture of both conductive and sensor-
ineural characteristics, he/she is said to have a mixed hearing loss. The hearing deficiency may have started originally as a conductive failure, such as otosclerosis, and later
developed a superimposed sensorineural component; or the difficulty may have been
sensorineural in the beginning, such as presbycusis, and a conductive defect, perhaps
resulting from middle-ear infection, may have developed subsequently. In some cases the
conductive and the sensorineural elements may have started simultaneously, as in a severe
head injury affecting both the inner ear and the middle ear.
